A good correction

Let me point out a couple things: First, my friend was just starting out in the business, age 23 or so, first job, small-town paper, making an attempt at creativity that might have been trite to some, but was hardly an undendurable sin. To do what editors did to that lede was atrocious, period.

Secondly, I'm pleased to report that he went on to write stories far better than every imperious anonymous critic on this board. He's in the top five percent of all sports writers I know.

 

Oh, totally agree on the "atrocious" part. Making a bad lede worse is inexcusable. And yeah, if he was 23, it should've been gently tossed back to him with an explanation.

Good to hear he became a success, too. But ... do you think he'd still like that lede? Snowclonesare by definition cliches.

 

By definition? Well, I'm not sure I agree with the cited definition. New twists on old phrases aren't necessarily trite to me, unless in and of themselves they've been pounded to death. (Dan Patrick saying, "You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him," became a cliched sendup of a cliched phrase.)

I have no problem with a writer trying to take a popularly recognizable phrase or sentence and tweak it for the purpose entertaining the audience within his story -- if it works, obviously.

 

Yeah, I'm just some agate clerk who they may allow to edit a story someday. Never mind my opinion. I hope you're saying that the desk did something wrong, not that a masterpiece was ruined. I also hope you acknowledge that for every one time the desk does something awful like that, there are dozens of times they save your ass.

 

Agreed. There are always exceptions.

 

Whomever wrote that Aerosmith caption needs a permanent vacation.

 

I certainly wouldn't have been Pump-ed if I saw it in my paper.

 

That copy editor can no longer say I dont wan't to miss a thing.

 

I'm sure he/she has what it takes. He/She just has to get back in the saddle.

 

IJAG making Aerosmith puns. I feel dizzy.

 

I'm willing to bet that mistake was not F.I.N.E. with his or her superiors.